concrete stamping driveway coming up.

In years past have done lots of concrete work, but never a stamp and stain job. Overall will be 30 yds involved, three different pours. I've done research, but can't decide staining while wet, or do it later. I need tips on screeding, troweling, what slump, what kind of day and time of pour, how to do the acid stain, and when. Also planning a picture of a large compass stained in (have a professional artist in the family) any tips there? I have the stamping pads and planning on a bronze like finish. Just a wore out carpenter here, thats wanting to put a little flash on for my criticizing inlaws.

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concrete stamping driveway coming up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bernieb

In years past have done lots of concrete work, but never a stamp and stain job. Overall will be 30 yds involved, three different pours. I've done research, but can't decide staining while wet, or do it later. I need tips on screeding, troweling, what slump, what kind of day and time of pour, how to do the acid stain, and when. Also planning a picture of a large compass stained in (have a professional artist in the family) any tips there? I have the stamping pads and planning on a bronze like finish. Just a wore out carpenter here, thats wanting to put a little flash on for my criticizing inlaws.

That's a lot of things not to know for such a large, complicated job. I don't think written advice will give you what you need to successfully accomplish this job.
Screeding, troweling, slump are all basic tasks. How does someone with, " have done lots of concrete work", not know this?
I'd leave this to the pros or the inlaws will eat you alive over this.

concrete stamping driveway coming up.

i've done stamped concrete for many years and have had a lot of good concrete guys think that they could do it over the years, they were all wrong. stamping is an art form and it takes a lot of practice to get good at it. its not only about how to pour a good slab but timing is everything. get on the stamps to early, big mess, too late, a different kind of mess. you are correct on doing it in seperate pours but where do you stop? hot/cold joint. will you have a boarder or band at your stopping points? do yours matts have joints or will you be using seamless matts? how many matts do you have? i would hope that you have at least 10 matts, a skin matt and some floppy matts. do you have any joint tools for cleaning up squeeze outs, and do you know how to corect any problems after the concrete has set. not only will you need to know what type of slump to use, you will want a rich/fatty mix (stamp mix) and if you plan on doing more than one truck per day, you will want you later mixes to have retarder added. im not saying that this cant be done but it is a lot harder than it looks. acid staining is a whole different kind of animal. mix ratios, nuetalizing, how long to let it burn, stuborn areas that wont take stain....i would look into eco-stain by sure crete design products, it is a lot more user friendly and the colors are more true to the color charts. acid stains can be way off from the charts due to application and different additives in different slabs of concrete.

concrete stamping driveway coming up.

Thanks Mustang Mike for your valuable input, and I'm well aware of this personal challange that I'm undertaking, and a person of your caliber is most welcome. I'm going for a slate finish, with grid work of different sizes, have made four panels so far, but will build six more. The 12x12 inch border have been molded off a slate tile from lowes, and the 3'x3' panels molded off of large flat rock using aluminum foil and resin. Not really planning on doing any work after this job, just didn't want to do all the running for rented panels and the gas involved. And Ron, I had my own foundation wall panels 40 years ago, so concrete gets a lot of respect from me, but thanks anyway for what you had to offer.

concrete stamping driveway coming up.

As someone who's done there fair share of stamping, I'd head warning on attempting to use a patterned stamp as your first trial. There is ALOT of time consuming work involved in patterned stamping, especially when you're incorporating a border.

Mix designs are complicated, and generally tailored to the contractor through experience, as well as a lot of other current variables, like access, weather, subgrade moisture, etc....

At the very least, I'd suggest pouring a yard or two for a trial pour as well as looking into purchasing & using "Fritz packs" to delay set through-out the pour.